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Help fitting my first road bike

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Help fitting my first road bike

Old 08-20-20, 12:08 AM
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famcam
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Help fitting my first road bike

Hello, I am attempting to get into cycling and need help understanding the dimensions i should roughly be looking for in a road bike. I'm trying to buy second hand since it's still up in the air as to whether or not I'll stick to cycling and I don't have the money to put towards a new one. I've visited a few shops in my area but two of them just looked at me and said "Large," after prying one said 58cm, and another shop simply said "I don't do measurements but I can put you in the Trek machine." I've done my best to get measurements and this is what they look like:

Height 188cm
Inseam 83cm (measured barefoot, don't know if that was how it was supposed to be)
Arms 64cm (dunno if that matters)
Trunk 68cm

Any help and insight is appreciated!
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Old 08-20-20, 09:26 AM
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GAtkins
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According to the Trek sizing chart you might be a 60 or 62.

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/b...ode=black_grey

I am 6'4" and ride a 61 Specialized Allez.

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Old 08-20-20, 09:33 AM
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Hard to say without knowing the bike. Sizing isn't as standardized as people think. So a 56 cm frame in on model might fit you well and a 58 in another model might fit you well.

Whether you measure yourself with shoes or barefoot really doesn't make a difference. Normal shoes aren't going to make but roughly a 1 cm difference. I'm 180 cm with a 87 cm leg length. I credit my long legs with letting me ride everything from a 64 cm to 56 cm comfortably.

On an old vintage bike with a horizontal top tube, I'd just try to make sure I could straddle the top tube with feet on the ground. Tip toe or flat footed, that's up to you. However the larger the frame size, the less drop you'll be able to get from seat to bars. Might not be an issue if you are wanting an upright posture. But upright posture and long distance riding don't go together IMO.

Geometries and tube lengths in bike design have changed over the years and through the various models. I can put my 60 cm 1991 Paramount that I rode for four maybe five years next to my 56 cm 2020 Tarmac. The important parts of how a bike fits are in pretty much the same orientation to each other. My Paramount does have a shorter stem than it would have come with originally. And I can't get near the same drop between the bars and the saddle as I have on the Tarmac.

If you know the make and model of the bike you are going to be looking at, then try and google for the specs on that bike. Sometimes the manufacturer will have an archive of old models. Sometimes you can find a site that someone has scans of old catalogs. You might run across sizing recommendations in them.

And for any new or very recent model, you should still be able to find that on the makers site and get sizing from that.

Otherwise you just have to go by what feels good to you and realize that as your body gets more adapted to cycling, that you might find your bike no longer suits you. Fit wise or other wise. So don't spend so much on your first bike that you can't replace it as you gain experience.


whew.... is this long enough?
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Old 08-20-20, 01:10 PM
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IME inseam is the least important measurement to use for sizing. Saddles can go up and own a lot. Effective top tube (ETT) length is much more important because stem length is has less flexibility. People vary a lot in leg/torso proportion, so the bike you get based on leg length may not fit you based on torso. The issue with that is that ETT recommendation is more complicated to get. My recommendation is to go to this fit calculator: https://www.competitivecyclist.com/S...ulatorBike.jsp
and have someone help you with the measurements. Fill out the calculator and there you are. From the calculator:
No single piece of frame geometry has a greater impact on comfort than your top tube. If you plan on paying attention to one measurement and one measurement only, make it this one.
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Old 08-20-20, 04:38 PM
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Thanks for the answers. The calculator came back with a result that said I should be looking for a CT range of 56.6 to 57.1 and a top tube length of 54.2 to 54.6. Does that mean I should look for a bike that's either a 56 or 58cm frame with a top tube around 54cm?
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Old 08-20-20, 09:26 PM
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Originally Posted by famcam
Thanks for the answers. The calculator came back with a result that said I should be looking for a CT range of 56.6 to 57.1 and a top tube length of 54.2 to 54.6. Does that mean I should look for a bike that's either a 56 or 58cm frame with a top tube around 54cm?
Simpler than that. Just look for a bike with an ETT of 54-55 cm.
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Old 08-20-20, 09:27 PM
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Oh fantastic. Thanks a bunch!
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